Down and dirty

Eco-design expert and Dumped guru, Rob Holdway, gives you the lowdown on our volunteers, rubbish and waste and Dumped.

The volunteers appear to change their responses to rubbish from disgust to appeal rather quickly on the shows. How long did it really take them to get over feelings of repulsion?

After the initial shock and disgust at where they were, their views quickly changed. It would be an exaggeration to say that at any stage the group began to find the dump appealing. Yet over the course of their stay they had proven that you can live off other people’s rubbish. More than that, you can carve out quite a good quality of life.

A crucial point early on was the visit to the main landfill site 100 metres away. When confronted with the stench, filth and noise of the landfill it becomes hard to deny this is a problem. The initial disgust of ending up at a landfill changed to disgust at what they saw. Disgust that we don’t recyle more. Disgust that we see this material as waste; as a useless bi-product and not a valuable resource that can be reused or recycled. For many (except Darren) this galvanised the group. It reaffirmed for Selena and Lawrence what they already knew. It shocked Christine and Jarvis and the rest of the group.